First published in 1953, this book deals with the last decade of the struggle to reunite Eritrea to the Ethiopian motherland from which it was torn by Italian conquest in the last quarter of the 19th century.

The liberation of ex-Italian Eritrea after seventy years of colonial rule, its federation to Ethiopia, and the restoration of untrammeled access to the sea for the Ethiopian people after more than four hundred years of land-locked isolation, are well documented in this book.

Little understood outside the Ethiopian-Eritrean Federation, this book was written while the stories were recent and vivid in mind, and still in the realm of controversy and discussion.

While most African colonies began to agitate for independence after World War II, Ethiopia was faced with a different challenge. It had already acquired independence more than two millennia ago during the fourth century BC, but it was still the victim of colonial offenses — the most glaring of which is the loss of Eritrea to Italy.

This book is “the penultimate chapter” in Sylvia Pankhurst’s work on Ethiopia. It documents the political challenge of deciding the fate of Eritrea. Readers will be able to experience what life was like as the last vestiges of colonialism gave way to the era of Independence. Moreover, they will gain an understanding of how previous political decisions affect the region today.

Preface by Richard Pankhurst

Foreword

Introduction

CHAPTERS

The Pledges Flutter Down

The Colony as the British Found It

The Establishment of British Administration

Italian Sabotage Under the Cloak of Collaboration

The Growth of the Unionist Movement

The Editor of New Times and Ethiopia News Visits the Territory

The Diplomatic Struggle Opens

The Four Power Inquiry Commission

At the Bar of the United Nations

Eritrean Youth Becomes Militant

At the United Nations Again

The United Nations Commission of Enquiry

A Decision at Last

The Dismantling of the Ports

Asmara After 60 years of Colonial and Caretaker Government

Awaiting the Transfer of Power

The Head of the Federation’s Triumphal Visit

Appendix

The Administration of Eritrea as Proposed by the Ethiopian Government in 1946